PechaKucha Player Guide

Learn about PechaKucha

PechaKucha (Japanese for "chit chat") is a slide show of 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds, for 6 minutes 40 seconds in all. Architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham created it in Tokyo in 2003. A shorter version works the same way: 9 slides at 20 seconds each make a 3-minute talk.

• What Is PechaKucha?, from PechaKucha's YouTube channel (33 seconds)
• What makes a great PechaKucha presentation, also from PechaKucha (7 minutes)
• About PechaKucha, the official site's history of the format
• Explore, thousands of talks to watch
• PechaKucha's YouTube channel

Getting started

Open the player and add your pictures. Everything after that happens on one screen.

1. Go to the PechaKucha Player.
2. Drag your pictures onto the box, or click Choose Files. Name your files with numbers (1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg) and they'll load in order.
3. Click a slide to work on it.

The player works with any picture your browser can show (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, SVG) and with video clips (MP4 works everywhere). Your files stay on your computer.

The editor

Once your pictures load, the editor has four parts:

• The bar across the top shows how many slides you have and your total time (9 × 0:20 = 3:00). It holds Save, PowerPoint, Open, the Practice/Present switch, and Start.
• Your slides run down the left side. Drag one up or down to move it.
• The selected slide sits large in the middle, exactly as the audience will see it, with your script under it.
• Slide settings for the selected slide sit in the column on the right.

On a phone, the slides scroll sideways across the top, and Slide settings opens the settings from the bottom of the screen.

Editing a slide

Click a slide and its settings appear on the right. Every change shows right away on the large slide in the middle.

Small marks on the slides show what you've changed: a blue dot means the slide has a script, an orange dot means a custom time, and a green slide number means a custom display mode. ♪ means a sound and ▶ a video.

Display modes

The six modes decide what happens when your picture's shape doesn't match the screen.

To change every slide at once, use Display under All slides at the bottom of the settings.

Video slides

Add a video clip the same way as a picture. It plays when its slide starts and stops when the slide's time runs out. A 45-second clip on a 20-second slide plays its first 20 seconds, and a clip shorter than its slide freezes on its last frame.

Writing your script

Type what you'll say over each slide in the box under the large slide. The count above the box tells you whether it fits in the slide's time.

The count shows how many words you've written and about how long they take to say, at 150 words a minute. It turns amber when the script runs longer than the slide's time. Twenty seconds is about 50 words.

Your script follows you into Practice and Present, where you can still edit it. If it turns amber, cut it down or give that slide more time under Duration.

Arranging your slides

• Move a slide: drag it up or down the list (sideways on a phone). A blue line shows where it will land. With a slide selected, the arrow keys move it too.
• Delete a slide: hover over it and click the delete button in its corner. Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac), or Undo in the message that pops up, brings it back.
• Add more: click + Add more at the end of the list, or drop more files anywhere on the page.
• Start over: clears the editor so you can begin a new presentation.

The title slide

The title slide is a card that shows before your timed slides begin. It has no timer and doesn't count toward your time. You can stand at it while the room settles.

To add one, click + Add in the Title Slide box at the top of the list and choose a picture. You can also select one of your slides and click Make Title Slide to move it out of the timed run. Click the X on the title slide to put it back at the front of the timed slides.

Practicing and presenting

Choose Practice to rehearse on one screen, or Present to show the slides on a projector while you keep your notes on your laptop. Then click Start. To begin partway through, select a slide first and click From Slide N.

Practice mode

Practice fills your screen with the slides and a bar along the bottom. Press Space or click Start to begin. Three switches in the bottom bar add help:

• Timer: big countdown numbers on the slide
• Notes: your script on the right, which you can edit as you go
• Audio cues: one beep at 5 seconds left and two beeps at 3 seconds

Run it at least once with the timer on and the notes off, out loud, the way you'll give it.

Present mode

Present opens a second window for the audience and turns your first window into a presenter view. Drag the audience window onto the projector and make it full screen (F11, or Ctrl+Cmd+F on a Mac). Then click Start in the presenter view.

The presenter view shows the current slide and its countdown, the next slide, your notes, and a strip of every slide. Click any slide in the strip to jump to it. Audience Window closes the audience window, or opens it again, and Back to Editing returns to the editor. The audience sees only the slide:

In Present mode, slide sounds and videos play from the audience window. Connect the projector's sound to the computer.

While it runs

• Space pauses and resumes (videos, sounds and the Ken Burns zoom pause too)
• ← and → move back and forward by hand
• Esc stops and goes back

After the last slide, a finish screen shows your slide count and total time, with buttons to restart or go back to editing.

Saving and exporting

The player doesn't save on its own. If you close the tab, your work is gone. Click Save before you leave.

• Save downloads one file (it ends in .json) with everything: your pictures, videos and sounds, their order, your scripts, times, display modes, and the title slide. Videos make the file large.
• Open brings a saved file back exactly as you left it, on any computer. Click Open and choose the file, or drop it on the start page. You don't need the original pictures.
• PowerPoint downloads a .pptx with your slides, their timings, and your scripts as speaker notes. A video slide becomes a still from its first second, and sounds aren't included.

Save a copy before you present, and bring it on a USB drive or in your email in case you present from a different computer.

Shortcuts and tips

• One idea and one picture per slide. Twenty seconds holds about 50 spoken words.
• Watch the count. When a script turns amber, cut it rather than talking faster.
• Rehearse out loud with the timer. The slides move on without you. Practice until each one feels natural in its 20 seconds.
• Let the beeps keep time. Turn on Audio cues in Practice so you can feel the rhythm without watching the clock.
• Check every slide before you present. Click through once to make sure each picture is cropped the way you want.

Roadmap

Planned features, roughly in order. To suggest one or report a bug, get in touch.

• Video and sound in the PowerPoint exportClips and sounds come along into PowerPoint and start on their own.
• A soundtrack across slidesStart a sound on one slide and let it keep playing over the next ones.
• Text slidesType a slide instead of uploading an image.
• Background color detectionFill the space around a fitted image with a color taken from its edges.
• Clearer saving and exportMake it obvious what Save and PowerPoint each download.
• Audience window on the second screenOpen the audience window on the projector without dragging it there, the way PowerPoint does.
• iPhone photos (HEIC)Accept HEIC images directly.
• Format presets and a rule checkOne click for 20x20, 10x20, or 10x10, with a badge that shows whether the deck follows the official format.
• Recorded rehearsalRecord a practice run, play it back over the slides, and see which slides ran long or short.
• Class showcase playlistLoad several presenters' saved files and play them back to back, with a title card between each.

Example photos in the screenshots, from Wikimedia Commons: Raph_PH (CC BY 2.0), deepskyobject (CC BY 2.0), AVRO (CC BY-SA 3.0 NL), Cory Doctorow (CC BY-SA 2.0), cosciansky (CC BY 2.0), Bartłomiej Marchlewski (CC BY-SA 4.0), Raimond Spekking (CC BY-SA 4.0), Pete Forsyth (CC BY 4.0). Windows 95 startup screen, public domain.